The Queen Street Commons is a simple idea. Bring interesting people together to share space, services, and costs. The commons is set up with private work spaces, common rooms, meeting rooms, a kitchen, and an eating area. As a group we can do more and afford more.

Located in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, the Queen Street Commons is a place for people to work, meet, and relax. The space is designed to be used by individuals and by groups. Services include wireless internet, printers, fax, phones, mail delivery, and boardroom.

The Commons is also a hub for the growing network of artisanal entrepreneurs who offer personal products and services such as artisanal food, pottery, therapy and who tap into the global market for a more trusted and a more human business.

2014 is in full swing and the Queen Street Commons is preparing to launch a number of events that will bring together like-minded folks for learning, networking and general merriment. First up on the docket is a Lunch N’ Learn series that will take place every Wednesday from March 26th to May 14th. A wide array of topics will be covered, including Financial Planning, Taking Charge of Your health, and Being an Olympian in Your Own Life. Stay tuned for the full schedule and details!

Posted onMay 8, 2013byrobpatrob|Comments Off on QSC – 8 Years old this month – PEI’s centre for Freelancers and Artisans

There are now nearly 800 commercial co-working facilities in the United States, up from a little more than 300 only two years ago, and about 40 in 2008, according to an annual survey by Deskmag, an online magazine that covers the co-working industry.

More than 110,000 people currently work in one of the nearly 2,500 coworking spaces available worldwide. Compared to last year, there are now 83% more coworking spaces that serve a total of 117% more members! Considering only workdays, we see 4.5 new coworking spaces have emerged daily for the past twelve months. During the same time, the number of coworking members increased by 245 people on average each work day. (Deskmag)

As a member of the QSC, you are also part of the Coworking Visa – you have the benefit of access to over 200 sites all over the world. Details here. Visiting Toronto, London, Paris, Los Angeles? You have a space and a community waiting for you.

What is going on and how might this help you?

Working at an office can be too structured. Working at home can be too lonely. You may not have a job anyway. If you are under 30, you probably don’t. Same if you are over 55. So you seek to make a living. Co Working gives you the network to help. It gives you the social space to thrive in.

So are you a student with a summer clear ahead of you and want to get a feel for this kind of work and space? Maybe you have a project? Are you in your 40’s and 50’s and wonder how you will cope when you lose your job? have you retired but are going mad from boredom?

The benefits of coworking continue to be realized: 71% of respondents said their creativity had increased since joining, and 62% said their standard of work had improved. Countering the common claim that coworking spaces can be distracting, 68% said they were able to focus better, as compared to 12% who said the opposite. 64% said they could better complete tasks on time.

Who are the coworkers? 53% are freelancers, while the remainder are entrepreneurs, small company employees, big company employees, and 8% who describe themselves as none of the above (the proportion of “other” respondents has increased from 5% two years ago to 8%, while entrepreneuers has fallen from 18% to 14%). The proportion of female coworkers is growing, up from 32% in 2010 to 38% today.

The average number of desks and members is growing. The maximum capacity of most spaces is now 41 people, and the average membership size is 44. Desk utilization is up, from 49% to 55%, meaning spaces are being used by their members more frequently.

The majority of coworkers are so content with their workspace that they don’t plan to leave. 62% said they have no plans to leave their locations, while less than 5% will stay just for one month, disproving the notion that coworking is for mobile workers only.

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“High-intensity” telecommuters at home more than three days a week and fulltime freelancers risk feeling alienated, said Ravi S. Gajendran, an author of the study who is now an assistant professor of business at the University of Illinois. “The need to feel socially connected is a fundamental human need,” Dr. Gajendran said.

A Google search on “freelance lonely,” for example, yielded 3.6 million results. For many, the “electronic cottage” has become an “electronic tiger cage,” said Paul Saffo, the Silicon Valley technology forecaster.

“We went through our work-from-home-in-your-bunny-slippers phase and discovered it was lonely,” Mr. Saffo said.

“People aren’t going back to the office for the office,” Mr. Hillman said. “They’re going back to the office to be around people again.”

The QSC was one of the first co working sites to open anywhere back in May 2005! We are a mixed community of programmers, artists, writers, foodies, painters, farmers, therapists and business and financial consultants. You will find a pal and you will find help and ideas.

Try us. What have you to lose?

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Posted onOctober 26, 2012byrobpatrob|Comments Off on Live on PEI? Freelancing, an Artisan, Need Work? Why the Queen Street Commons can help you

If I am right and we are moving to an economy that depends on our networks, then it is essential that we learn what each of our networks means and what we can do to make them healthier. So, with that in mind, let’s look at mine and I will share some lessons with you.

Here is my social network as created by the Mapping tool on Linkedin. It’s not the 100% true picture but it looks like 90% to me. You can use their mapping tool by going here.

Diversity – In nature diversity is a good thing – so it is with our social networks. You can see that I am connected to a series of worlds. PEI , Public Media, Network Thinkers, Family and I have 2 outside nets of New Military Thinkers and my legacy Corporate connections.

I think that this does not look too bad – I have good links into many fields. How does your world look?

Our networks are like gardens, we can always make them better. We can always add and remove. We can always pay attention.

We can always strengthen these links. This does not mean that you randomly try and make friends. This mapping tool shows you where to be most effective. For you don’t not have to work everywhere – only where it adds the most value.

Key Connectors

Lets look at inside PEI. Karen Murchison, John Morris and Cynthia King – all members of the Queen Street Commons have massive connections on PEI to artisans and freelancers. They are themselves clustered in the centre like a sun in a planetary system. The QSC is in reality a hub of the freelance and artisanal life on PEI. If you want to be a successful freelancer on PEI, the QSC is a good place to start.

There is a hierarchy in networks. The ones who are most connected and the ones who connect across networks are the most important. Where do you fit with these key people? Maybe you are one of them. Look at Will Pate in the Green on the top right. Will is an Islander who lives away and is a connector between PEI and the Network Thinkers. Will is important for PEI.

The people who connect one system to another are VERY important people.

Your key networks will share this kind of hierarchy. Important to know how it works and where you stand.

Tim Eby is such a system connector. He is not only well connected inside pub media – he was the Chair of NPR – but is well connected people who can help such as Doc Searls – who is in turn the connector into Network Thinkers. Having the Trust of people like Tim and Doc is therefore important. It is not easily gained either.

This is not a cocktail party – but your life. How you behave is key.

There are ultra close connectors – as in my case Jevon MacDonald who is like a twin to me. I don’t want to piss Jevon off as he can influence most of my network. You too will have your Jevons. Pay attention to them. They are better than family.

I said that this was just an introduction, so we will stop here. Much more to come with Valdis and later with others.

So when you map your world, check these issues:

Are you happy with how diverse it is? If it is not diverse you will find it hard to use crowd sourcing etc and you will be too deep in your own echo chamber

Do you know who your key connectors are and do you care enough about them? For they give you the best access to the sub networks?

Do you know who counts the most in each network? Again this is all about leverage.

For in the real network world it is not the number of “Friends” you have but the quality of your inner circle.

Is there a better way to see your network? I think that there is. My advice, and Valdis’s advice is to map out your best connections and then see how this works. Here is how you can do this using thePermaflower and Magic Numbers (Dunbar’s Social Gradients). Using your Linkedin map then fill out this more personal map.

Put your 3 most important people in the centre. Then the 8. Then the 80. See how they overlap or don’t. Then you can start to see where you need to pay attention.

You can then use this map to see what you need to do to fit what you need your network to be about. don’t worry the work is not about sucking up.

In the podcast with Valdis we will talk a lot about “Weak Ties” and explode the myth that these are merely casual aquaintances. We will see that trust is the key. Old but good friends are very valuable to us. You don’t need to talk or see them a lot but you have to maintain the trust.

Later we will explore what you have to BE rather than what you have to DO.

More on all of this in my book – You Don’t Need a Job and even more in the book to come in November – You Don’t Need a Banker. For when it comes to the new credit system – which is of course the OLD credit system – your reputation and your network are everything.

It’s all about the kind of person you are.

The LinkedIn Tool is very easy to use and allows you to do all sorts of tests and analysis – I cannot recomend it enough. Happy exploring. You future depends on knowing more about your network.

Comments Off on Live on PEI? Freelancing, an Artisan, Need Work? Why the Queen Street Commons can help you

You can have a job now, be a student, be on the verge of retirement, be just layed off – here is where you can find the network you need and learn how to be a human again.

I think that the Co Working Space is the “Factory” of our time. This is the social space that the Freelancer needs to combat the separation and loneliness of the solo role. This is the social space that opens us each up to the broader network. It is also the space where we learn to be a proper human again – where how we behave matters.

What they offer is a real Tribe. While the income has improved – look at all the other parts of life that are better!

They were mainly very urban. But look at how they are growing now in rural areas.

The Queen St Commons was started in 2005 – we were one of the first 5 in the world in a city of less than 35,000. We were an oddity but now are more of the new norm as rural co work grows. As more of us leave the city, the Rural Co Working spot becomes more important. Rural sites also have to have an economic model that fits – much more a co-op than a top down space rental.

Lots to learn from each other as new micro models emerge. So lots of good reasons for Co Working spaces to get connected now to each other.

The next big move I think will be connecting all the co working sites into a global network. So a member of a site in a rural village can get to London or New York or Mumbai! And then think of the power of the connections?

My new book You Don’t Need a Job – explores more of the value of co working for anyone who wants to put a toe into the real new economy.